Past events

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Royal Anthropological Institute / Development Studies Association Tourism Research Seminars

SEMINAR SERIES AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

Tourism planning for economic development and poverty reduction in Ghana: historical trajectories and contemporary challenges

Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong, University of Lincoln

Thursday 15 December 2016 at 5.30 pm

Since independence in 1957, successive governments in Ghana have sought to utilise tourism as a tool for economic development and poverty reduction. In the early post-independence period, international tourism was considered as a form of neo-colonialism and hence there was a level of ambivalence shown by the government regarding tourism development. In more recent times, the most consistent view of tourism development held within successive national economic development policies is that of a source of foreign exchange. This view has shaped the development of national tourism plans and their subsequent implementation. The presentation examines how tourism has been conceptualised within national economic development policy and planning over the years and identifies the key historical trajectories that have shaped the form of tourism development in Ghana. This presentation will end by showing why it is important to consider the tourism-poverty nexus through the eyes of national economic development policies. To ensure that tourism’s potential is leveraged for local economic development and poverty reduction a government’s entire (economic) tourism strategy need to be structured around this goal. The presentation therefore raises questions about whether tourism’s full potential can be realised in developing countries like Ghana where the focus continues to be on foreign exchange earnings.

Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong is a Lecturer in Tourism Management at the Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln. He is due to submit on his PhD thesis at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield on 1st December, 2016. The thesis focuses on the governance of tourism-led local economic development planning in Ghana using the case of the Elmina 2015 Strategy. In 2014, Emmanuel founded the Tourism Research Network (TouRNet) which now runs a yearly symposium for PhD and Early Career Researchers in tourism, events and hospitality. His research interests revolve around research methods, tourism policy and planning, cultural heritage management, international development planning and urban studies.